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5th NAPF North American Regional Powerlifting Championships
Guatemala City, Guatemala
June 20-24, 2007
LOTS of Contest Photos can be seen here
The 5th NAPF North American Regional Powerlifting Championships was held June 20-24, 2007, in Guatemala City, Guatemala and was a great success! Despite 3rd world conditions, the Guatemala Federation work especially hard to overcome many obstacles to deliver a nearly flawless championship. On this note, I would like to commend the administration of the Guatemala Federation for their dedication, vision and the hard work they put in, for nearly one year to prepare for this event.
The preparation by the Guatemala Powerlifting was comprehensive and included referee training and certification, training seminars for both coaches and athletes, and contest direction/preparation workshops. Their efforts resulted in 127 lifters, from 12 countries taking part, making this championship, thee largest the NAPF has hosted thus far.
Important to note, without the support of the Guatemala Sports Confederation and the Guatemala Olympic this event would not have been possible. Special thanks go out to Mr. Sergio Castro, the President of the Guatemala Sports Confederation, and to Mr. Felix Bol, the President of the Guatemala Powerlifting Federation for their support of this championship.
New member federation countries such as Nicaragua and Costa Rica took part for the first time in the regional powerlifting championships, and there are there are several [new] member federations interested in joining the NAPF -- Those being Belize and the British Virgin Islands. The British Virgin Islands was accepted as a provisional member at the congress, and Belize becomes and associate member.
On Wednesday, prior to the congress and technical meeting, I delivered an Anti-doping Seminar that was attended by nearly 100 athletes, coaches, administrators, and lasted approximately three [3] hours. Also attending the seminar were administrators from WADA in Guatemala. Overall, the seminar was very well received and there were many questions from the participants. Interestingly enough, this is the first regional anti-doping seminar ever held by the IPF. The NAPF is going to be proactive rather reactive in terms of anti-doping. I am going to post the Power Point Presentation for the seminar on the NAPF website in the weeks to come.
The championship saw a very large turnout of junior lifters this year, and it is expected that in maybe 1-2 years, we will conduct our Junior Championship apart from the Open Championship.
In terms of doping control, the WADA personnel from the Guatemala Olympic Committee were present and in uniform, and conducted all of the testing, chaperoning, document management, etc. They were very professional and my compliments to their staff. Overall, 18 tests were done. The samples were picked up, on time, by World Courier and transported to the Cologne Laboratory. The results for all of these tests were ALL negative -- A "positive" sign that our effort with anti-doping education is actually working.
The chief of the WADA Control Team here in Guatemala was VERY impressed with our championship and educational seminar. A final report on his experience with our championship and testing controls was generated and sent to the NAPF.
The farewell banquet was impressive and attended by some 250+ people. There was a lot of dancing and overall was a grand celebration on the part of the Guatemala Federation, which in the last two years has come a long way to enter the mainstream of international powerlifting.
Best lifter awards were given to David Hammers, with a Wilks Score of 518.5, and Priscilla Ribic with a Wilks score of 621.15. Additionally, the USA won both the Men and Women's team titles. My compliments go out to the respective coaching staffs for their hard work and efforts in not only preparing their athletes to come in and soundly defeat some very well prepared teams at this year's championship. My compliments especially go to James Townsend, who has come along way, and is one of our bright stars in terms of coaching for the USA.
Again, I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the Guatemala Powerlifitng Federation for their efforts and commitment to making this championship a success. A job well done!
To close, the Guatemala Powerlifting Federation will be hosting the IPF Pan-American Powerlifting Championships that will take place in Guatemala City, during the summer/fall timeframe of 2009. The 2008 NAPF Championships have been pulled from Trinidad and Tobago, and will likely be held either in San Salvador, El Salvador or Miami, Florida during July 2007.
I hope to see you there!
Robert Keller
General Secretary
North American Powerlifting Federation
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